CHARLOTTESVILLE—During George Welsh’s long tenure as U.Va.’s football coach, several walk-ons made important contributions at wide receiver, among them Patrick Jeffers, Keith Mattioli, Tim Finkelston and Derek Dooley.

In his seventh season at U.Va., Welsh’s successor, Al Groh, may have found a player who’ll continue that tradition.

Asked Monday about his wide receivers’ play in spring practice, which began last week, Groh said, “Staton Jobe is doing as good a job as anybody: walk-on, walk-out, walk-in, whatever category they came from.”

Jobe, who joined Groh’s program without a scholarship last season, is a 6-0, 177-pound freshman who redshirted in 2006.  His brother played wide receiver at Texas Tech, as did their father. 

Staton Jobe graduated from Westlake High in Austin, Texas, where he was a three-time district champion in the 100-meter dash, with a best time of 10.35 seconds.  As a senior at Westlake, Jobe caught 44 passes for 1,003 yards and 10 touchdowns and was named second-team all-Central Texas.

Because of injuries to Kevin Ogletree (wrist) and Chris Dalton (thigh bruise), Jobe has gotten extensive work this spring.  He’s making the most of the opportunity.

Jobe’s greatest challenge, Groh said, will be overcoming his lack of size.

“He’s a smaller player, and he’s got to find ways to compensate for that,” Groh said.  “But he picks up things very quickly ... He gets a lot of things right that the coaches have pointed out to him.”